


A Last Comfort.

by LittleMewLugia (Lugianna)



Series: Oneshots and Snippets [3]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-16 03:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16077656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lugianna/pseuds/LittleMewLugia
Summary: When Sam finds one of the Decepticons dying after a battle, he does the only thing he can for them.





	A Last Comfort.

**Author's Note:**

> Matrix: Transformer version of heaven. Pit: Transformer version of hell.

A Last Comfort.

Rating: Teen and up.

Warnings: Character death.

Disclaimer: Not mine, the rights to the characters and universe belong to Paramount/Dreamworks and Takara/Hasbro.

 

A Last Comfort.

 

As the rest of the Autobots set off in pursuit of the rest of the Decepticons, a near-silence settled on the devastated section of town.

 

A lone human figure looked out, and watched the departing figures. Sam Witwicky knew he'd been left here because chasing the remaining Decepticons was dangerous, and knew that it would not be too long before Bumblebee dropped out of the chase. Once it was established the Deceptions really were retreating, not just pretending to, the yellow Autobot scout would come back to pick him up. All the same, Sam felt left out. This was his planet, and he couldn't even help to defend it. Besides, with settling mech bodies and falling masonry and nobody else around, the civilian humans having been successfully evacuated before the fight started in earnest, it was _creepy_.

A sound of scraping metal to Sam's right made him turn, and his eyes fell upon a twisted-looking heap of white, black, and silver metal that lay sprawled in the middle of the road. Although it was severely battered, missing an arm, and its legs no longer looked able to support it, the spiked head and other clawed hand, plus the now-damaged stencilled letters on its hide meant Sam immediately recognised the figure. 

 

It was Barricade, the first Cybertronian to deliberately expose its true form to Sam, the first Decepticon to trouble him, and Sam moved over to look at the sprawled form of the Decepticon frontliner. How odd it was to think that this nemesis would never trouble him again.

The scraping sounded again, and Sam froze as he realised that Barricade's head was moving. Sam backed up two steps:p;he had been a fool to think that Barricade was dead. He eyed the mech warily, half expecting Barricade to leap up and attack him, despite the damage to his frame. He saw the optic-shutters lifting, noticed that only one optic was lit up, the other remaining dark. That one functional optic moved, and focused on Sam.

"So, you've come to gloat at me in my defeat, I see," Barricade said. His already harsh voice sounded weaker than Sam remembered, more throaty, and Sam could hear the pain in Barricade's voice. He supposed losing an arm and having your legs crushed _would_ hurt.

"Actually, I haven’t," Sam said, stung by the accusation. "I'm not like that, I don't take pleasure in seeing people hurt or dying, not like Trent."

 

He surprised himself with his last comment, he had been intending to say 'not like _you_ ' but it had just come out differently. Perhaps, Sam thought, because he honestly didn't know Barricade well enough to be able to make that sort of judgement about him. Not that he knew Trent that well either, though he had his suspicions about Trent enjoying seeing others in pain, at least. Anyway, Trent wasn't here.

"Then why are you here?" the Decepticon asked.

"Because the others think it's too dangerous to take me with you as they chase your friends away. Because they think I'm too small and too vulnerable to help fight for my own world,” Sam said, anger creeping into his voice.

"My _friends_? No, they are no more my friends than _you_ are,” Barricade rasped. "We merely shared the same goals. I'm not friends with arrogant Seekers or halfwit tanks. I do have standards." He paused, refocusing on Sam. "So, despite your size you have courage? You want to fight but cannot?" He chuckled. "Take comfort from this though, human boy, in spite of your lack of armaments or defence, you have caused Starscream much grief, knowing that you are even still alive, and that you and your Autobot allies still outwit him. Starscream knows you have a good brain, and it is that intellect that scares him."

The optic abruptly died, and Sam stepped forward and touched the metal cheek.

"Barricade?" he cried in alarm. "Barricade?" Sam tapped on the Decepticon's face, and let out a breath as the optic brightened again. Barricade's toothy mouth opened again in another weak laugh.

"So, it's strangely fitting, though ironic, that my Spark-companion will be a squishy, who is also an enemy," he said.

"Spark-companion?" Sam repeated in confusion.

"The one who will stand or sit with me until I die. Or did you intend to go?"

"Die? You won't die, Ratchet can heal you," Sam said in alarm.

"No, I think when Ratchet gets back, it will be too late. I feel my Spark flickering now. Will you stay with me, Sam? I would not like to die alone."

"Look, Ratchet will be back any minute you'll see," Sam said in hope. "I'll stay with you till Ratchet gets back, okay?"

"Agreed," Barricade said.

"What did you mean when you said it was fitting that I should be your spark-companion?" Sam asked Barricade, for something to talk about.

"I am a warrior, Sam. My Spark-companion of choice would be another warrior, somebody who is courageous, loyal, clever, a fighter, maybe a tactician or problem-solver. Were you Cybertronian, Sam, you would be fitting. Your courage is obvious, as is your loyalty to your world and your friends. Squishy you may be, enemy you may be, but you are a more fitting Spark-companion than Starscream would ever be, or any of his other lackeys." Venom briefly strengthened Barricade's voice, and he briefly raised his head again. Then it slumped, and Sam knelt as Barricade began to speak again, so quietly that Sam almost missed it.

"Had things been different, we would have been friends, and I would have been _proud_ to call you friend.”

 

Sam knew that Barricade was right, that he was dying, and that even Ratchet probably couldn't save him now. Sam could do nothing more but carry out Barricade's last wish, to be his Spark-companion so he would not die alone. Sam bent so he could talk into the mech's audio.

"I would be proud to call you friend too, Barricade," Sam said. "Maybe it's too late for Ratchet to save you, but it's not too late for us to become friends, if you would do me the honour. What reason do we have _now_ to stay enemies?"

"Very well," whispered Barricade. "I can approach the gate to the Matrix, or maybe for me it will be the Pit - with my friend by my side to see me go. Stay with me, keep me company until my Spark departs my body, friend."

Sam saw the optic gutter and die.

"Barricade?" he asked in concern.

"Touch my face, Sam, let me feel you, my systems are closing down,and I can no longer see." Moving over, Sam did as Barricade asked stroking the cool metal face of his onetime foe. Barricade let out a sigh through his vents.

"Thank you, Sam. Thank you, my friend."

 

There was no warning, no alarms, no gasping or crying out, just a searing flash of bright light that Sam saw reflected on the metal of Barricade's face, and a warmth on his back. Sam turned, one hand still resting on Barricade's face, and he saw the light dissipate like smoke and fade upwards towards the sky. Barricade's chest plates hung loosely apart.

"Barricade?" Sam cried, once again tapping the mech on the cheeks. Sam did this for five minutes, before realising that no amount of tapping would do any good.

Barricade was gone.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

 

Ten minutes later, Bumblebee drove into the town, as it had been verified that the Decepticons were retreating, not feinting for a counterattack. He saw Sam bent over the face of a dead mech Bumblebee recognised as Barricade. He was leaning his arms on the mech, his head on his arms, and was shaking slightly. Concerned, Bumblebee converted to robot form.

"Sam? Are you okay?" the yellow scout asked. Sam stood up and turned, and Bumblebee's alarm grew as he saw that Sam's eyes were bloodshot, the skin around them red and puffy, his cheeks covered in fluid.

"Sam! Your optical sensors! They're red, and leaking! Are you unwell?"

Sam brought up a sleeve of his hoodie up, wiping tears and mucus from his nose off his face, and sniffed. He took a shuddering breath, and then spoke.

"It's okay 'Bee, I'm just crying, its something humans sometimes do when someone dies." He motioned towards Barricade.

"I don't do it often, but I do at times like this, when that someone was a friend, however brief that friendship has been."

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know if other people consider Barricade to be a major character, but I do, and I know a lot of people like him, hence the warning.


End file.
